128: Thunder Boy

Di Garden.

Compared to other parts of the Di Clan, it seemed like two completely different worlds.

Here, Spiritual Plants were everywhere, and medicinal fields crisscrossed in organized plots, divided into countless neat sections. They grew various Spiritual Plants and Spirit Medicines of low rank that maintained the daily operations of the massive Di Clan.

The air was filled with the earthy scent of soil, the fresh fragrance of vegetation, and a faint, lingering smell of sweat from the labor of the lower classes.

Di Jingzhe dragged a heavy medicinal hoe, mechanically turning over the slightly compacted spiritual soil beneath his feet, strike after strike.

Sweat had long since soaked through his faded, patched coarse-cloth shirt, clinging tightly to his thin back and outlining the frame of a youth who had not yet fully matured.

He was sixteen this year; while not short among his peers, he appeared somewhat frail due to long-term hardship and labor.

His face was tanned to a healthy wheat color by the sun, with regular features and a straight nose; his lips were habitually pursed slightly, revealing a sense of endurance and stubbornness unbefitting his age.

Those eyes were very bright, like obsidian after rain, but at this moment, they were filled with exhaustion and a deeply hidden unwillingness.

He possessed the Di Clan Bloodline, yet he belonged to a branch that had long since declined and been marginalized to the point of near-oblivion.

His parents had died in an unexpected attack during a Family mission when he was young, leaving behind only a blurred name and a few old items.

Later, when the Di Clan merged, he entered the Agriculture Branch; however, due to his low cultivation, he was responsible for tending the medicinal fields.

Although the Family was flourishing under the leadership of Clan Chief Di Shenglong, possessing countless Sharp Weapons and Heaven-Defying Cultivation Techniques, his talent was too low.

Now, he was just a part of these medicinal fields, like a weed that no one noticed, struggling to survive in the shadow of the towering tree that was the Di Clan.

Cultivation? He had been stuck at the tenth layer of the Mortal Realm for two whole years. Even with the first volume of the Myriad Realms Return to Origin Scripture, no matter how desperately he absorbed Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, the threshold leading to the Spirit Origin Realm remained like a chasm blocking his path.

Resources? The Family provided a fair amount of Spirit Stones and Medicinal Pills every month, but he wanted to save them to purchase a Cultivation Technique.

His only "property" was the small Storage Pouch hanging at his waist, which contained the resources he had obtained from the Family over this period—this was his entire hope for exchanging for a remnant of a lightning-attribute Cultivation Technique.

Lightning was the only active element of Heaven and Earth that he could perceive.

"Yo, isn't this our medicinal field's 'Awakening of Insects Genius'? Tangling with the dirt again?"

A sarcastic voice came from the side. Several youths, dressed significantly better than him and mostly at the first or second layer of the Spirit Origin Realm, gathered around with smirks.

The leader was named Di Lin, the nephew of a small steward of this medicinal field. He often used this connection to bully Di Jingzhe.

Di Jingzhe stopped his medicinal hoe and looked up at them with calm eyes, showing neither anger nor fear. "Is something the matter?"

Di Lin sneered and kicked away a small ridge of soil Di Jingzhe had just turned over: "Look at you, the ninth layer of the Mortal Realm? Tsk tsk, you really disgrace the Di Clan! I heard you're scrimping and saving to exchange for the Lightning Attraction Mantra? Stop dreaming! With your pathetic lightning affinity, you couldn't even attract a fart! Just stay here and dig the ground; this is your fate!" The youths behind him burst into laughter.

Di Jingzhe's fists clenched silently at his sides, his nails digging deep into his palms, bringing a sting of pain.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the surge of humiliation in his heart, and silently bent down to gather the scattered soil again, as if he hadn't heard the harsh laughter.

He had long since learned to bury all his emotions into this silent earth.

He knew that arguing and anger would only invite more malicious humiliation and hardship. His only resistance was silence and endurance.

The sky gradually darkened amidst the tedious labor. The final rays of the setting sun cast a dim golden-red glow over the vast medicinal fields.

Most of the clansmen had finished work and left, leaving only Di Jingzhe's lonely figure on the empty ridges.

The area he was responsible for was located at the edge of the medicinal fields, where few people usually came.

He walked to a medicinal plot at the very edge. The soil here was drier than elsewhere, carrying a strange, faint sense of static electricity.

In the center of the plot, a strange plant grew in isolation.

Its stem was a rare deep purple, almost black, with long, narrow leaves like swords, their edges flickering with tiny silver-blue electrical sparks.

At the top of the plant, a fist-sized flower shaped like a bell was quietly blooming.

The petals were translucent, and inside, it seemed as if countless tiny lightning bolts were wandering and flickering, making extremely faint "crackling" sounds that were particularly striking in the dim light.

This was a rare "Lightning Attraction Flower."

It wasn't an officially cultivated species in the Di Clan's medicinal garden but was something Di Jingzhe had discovered by chance.

Because its growing conditions were harsh—requiring trace but continuous nourishment from natural lightning—and it was of little use for refining most Medicinal Pills, it had always been considered useless. No one cared about it, so it was left to Di Jingzhe to tend.

Yet, Di Jingzhe felt an inexplicable sense of closeness to this peculiar plant.

Whenever the night was deep and quiet, and his cultivation made no progress, leaving him frustrated, he would come here and stare blankly at this flower that was accumulating lightning power in silence.

He could feel the slight numbness brought by the tiny arcs of electricity jumping within the petals; this sensation strangely brought him a sense of peace and solace.

Tonight, the state of this Lightning Attraction Flower was somewhat unusual.

The electrical sparks wandering within the petals were several times more active than usual, and their color was shifting from silver-blue to a piercing bluish-white.

The entire flower seemed like an overcharged container, trembling slightly and emitting an aura of restlessness.

The humid, stifling feeling in the air grew heavier, so thick it felt like water could be wrung from it.

In the distant horizon, muffled thunder began to roll, initially like a giant beast turning over deep within the clouds, low and distant.

Di Jingzhe's heart skipped a beat for no reason, and a sense of unease originating from deep within his Bloodline quietly rose.

He subconsciously moved closer to the Lightning Attraction Flower to get a better look. At the moment he leaned over—

"Crack—!!!"

An indescribably terrifying bluish-white lightning bolt tore through the heavy night sky without warning!

It didn't come from the distant horizon but seemed to instantly condense and explode within the clouds less than a hundred zhang above Di Jingzhe's head!

The light was so intense that it instantly illuminated the edge of the medicinal field as bright as day; the terrifying aura of destruction, like a physical giant hammer, smashed down fiercely!

The target was none other than that violently trembling Lightning Attraction Flower, which seemed to be actively calling for the lightning!

The shadow of death enveloped Di Jingzhe within a ten-thousandth of a second.

He didn't even have time to make any reaction; he only felt his vision completely swallowed by a destructive white light, and his ears were left with nothing but a terrifying explosion that shattered his Soul!

His body instantly lost all sensation, as if he had been thrown into the core of a furnace!

Boom—!!!

An earth-shaking roar, accompanied by terrifying high temperatures and shockwaves capable of melting rock, erupted violently with the Lightning Attraction Flower at the center!

Soil, gravel, and even that strange flower were completely vaporized in an instant!

A huge, charred pit over ten zhang in diameter appeared on the spot. The soil at the edges was in a vitrified, crystalline state, and wisps of blue smoke rose with a pungent smell of burning.

Di Jingzhe's figure completely vanished at the center of the explosion.